The Drive to Discover: Cancer Breakthroughs

In this special report, ABC7 takes you to the front lines in the battle against cancer, into Bay Area labs where researchers are developing new cutting-edge treatments.

Stories featured in "The Drive to Discover: Cancer Breakthroughs":

At UCSF, doctors are launching a new project that could have a dramatic effect on how they identify and treat breast cancer. If they are successful, they believe they will also be able to cut the time it takes to screen new cancer drugs from years down to just months.

Despite the controversy over some cancer screenings, there is little argument that early detection can mean the difference between life and death in many cases. Now, one researcher center in the Bay Area is developing new technologies to spot and confirm dangerous cancers far earlier than current tests do.

A renowned Stanford scientist, who has had a hand in developing powerful new cancer drugs, is now working on a different approach: Using the body's own immune system to detect and target cancers like lymphoma.

It may seem surprising, but a growing number of patients with a certain type of cancer are now being told that their best treatment option may be no treatment at all. A new test developed in the Bay Area is helping doctors identify that group of patients.

Millions of Americans followed the final struggle of Senator Ted Kennedy, after he underwent surgery for a particularly deadly kind of brain tumor that ultimately returned. Now, researchers at UCSF are trying a new approach to potentially stop aggressive brain tumors from recurring. It is a vaccine, and a Bay Area patient became the first person in the country to receive it.

A tiny flexible microscope is providing Bay Area researchers with a startling window into cancer. The technology allows them to see one of the most common forms of cancer cells while they are still in the patient's body.

A young boy on the verge of losing his arm to cancer is back to doing the things he loves thanks to doctors in the Bay Area. When they realized they could not save the bone in his arm, they decided to replace it instead.